Mom of Boys

I realize that I am over a week late in posting this…  But the past couple of weeks have been busy and I have a few more blogs to post AFTER this as well….

We had Caleb’s 4th birthday Party the Saturday after his party.  Everyone who I invited came, and we had a lot of fun!  I didn’t do everything that I had planned on doing, but it was such a good party anyways!  After everyone showed up, we had the kids put on the sorting hat and they were sorted into 4 houses.  Then we decorated party hats and the kids got thier wands.  We had Caleb show the rest of the kids the spell to use when you see a dementor.  That’s when we dropped the dementor pinata from the deck.  Unfortunatly, the pinata was too tough for the kids… and the stick broke!  So, we dumped the prizes out and we had cake.  The cake turned out to be pretty good…  I really though I had gotten in way over my head until it was done.  Everyone loved it and everyone was really impressed, which mad me feel better about it.  Anyways… I was happy witht he party. 

One part I forgot. We opened gifts after most of the party had left. We still had family and a few of our close friends around. It wasn’t so crazy and he got TONS of stuff!!! I got him a radio flyer scooter, which he loves! We go out to ride it all the time and it’s easy for us to take along with us to the park or to grandma’s house.

I’ve been super busy in the past week.  We went to VA Beach last Thursday and I helped Crystal get ready for Jayden’s birthday party.  I helped her out with the princess cake, which turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!  I’m home now and have been trying to get everything for Caleb and Alec’s party ready and set.  I’ve finished with shopping for the party favors and supplies I need to make the decorations and such…  Today I started to put together the pinata which was a big goooo-ey mess!  Not it just needs to dry and I can put the crape paper on it and dress it up to look like a dementor.  That part shouldn’t take long though… The casing for the pinata will take a week to dry, so I needed to get it done!  I also sat down and made a Harry Potter Playlist of songs to play during the party.  So…  that’s 2 things down! 

I’m excited about this party.  Let’s hope I get everything done in time! 

I NEED to write all of my ideas out, because I think I have too many!  Caleb really wants a Harry Potter Party, and I’m pretty sure I can pull it off…  I just need to think it through.  A Harry Potter party seemed like a pretty easy thing to do, and I have plenty of ideas! I may need to make a lot of these things myself though, like the invites and I had an idea for the piniata, but… looks like I will have to make the piniata myself too!  Anyways… 

Invites will be printed on “parchment” and sent in the mail with the hogwarts seal to look like an acceptance letter. 
I have to buy the paper and print the letters…

Dear ,  We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for Caleb’s 4th Birthday Party. We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, September 29, 2007 and remember, the train leaves King’s Cross Station (located at , Ashburn) at Eleven O’clock AM sharp and the journey will last 3 hours. Please RSVP by sending an OWL to rdunbaugh@gmail.com or by using the FLEW Network to by Saturday, September 22nd. Note that students may wish to wear their casual robes, as the journey may entail physical activity as well as working with messy potion ingredients.  We look forward to your arrival at Hogwarts.

Respectfully, Deputy Headmistress Robyn L. Dunbaugh.

Class List for First-Year Students: Orientation & Matriculation- History of Magic, Herbology, Potions, Defense against the Dark Arts, Quidditch Practice & Flying Lessons, Care of Magical Creatures, Excursion to Hogsmead, Divination 

The Party:
Orientation & Matriculation- History of Magic:  So… I’m thinking that I will put 2 signs on either side of our walkway to our house…  1 saying Platform 9 and one saying Platform 10.  (our door will be 9 3/4 and the sign for that will be inside.)  Have to make these signs…  Once inside, the kids will get sorted.  I havn’t decided if they should pick what house to be in, or if they should choose a house at random.  Once they are sorted they will get a badge with their house crest on it.  Have to make the badges.  I’ll have them decorate their own wizard hats with glitter, glue, feathers, pompoms & foam stars & moons.  I have to find black party hats, or else spray paint some cheap ones.  For wands, (Olivander’s ?) I can get some dowel sticks, cut them off and paint them…  I’m also thinking about some kind of loot bad, and not some cheesy plastic ones either, cause there’s a lot of ‘goodies’ that these kids will accumulate….  - keeping this in mind.

Herbology:  Kids can plant some seeds into little cups, so that they can take them home and watch them grow.  Maybe soem parsley or soemthing?

Potions:  I’m getting all sorts of sand art bottles from the craft store and I will put in a bunch of different things… oil, vinegar, spices, and we can pour over a cold pasta salad with in bowls.  Then we will do the same with Popcorn.  I will have Popcorn in bags with unicorn dust(cinnamon sugar), dragon scale(taco seasoning), swamp grass(italian seasoning), ghost whispers(parmesan cheese), for the kids to shake over their popcorn.

Care of Magical Creatures:  Kids can go look at bugs, snakes, lizards… (Led by Uncle Norman maybe?)

Excursion to Hogsmead:  (each kid gets 4 galleons to spend) - (Gringots?) Taking place outside…
Lunch at the Three Broomsticks:  need to make a sign  for three broomsticks.  will serve ButterBeer”(rootbeer floats) or “Polyjuice Potion”(lime soda with lime sherbet), pizza and fruit. 
Honeyduke’s Sweet Shop:  They will get to choose from Bartie Bott’s Everyflavor Bean(jellybeans), Liquorish Wands(twizzlers), Chocolate Frogs(chocolate molds & melted chocolate), and Fizzleing Whizbees(pop rocks), Worms (Gummy Worms).

Back to the Great Hall (dining room) for Cake:  I can hang stars from the ceiling just like in the Great Hall.  I found a Harry Potter Birthday Quidditch Cake Decorating Kit.  I still have to bake the cake, and use fondant to make the playing field and all… but I think Caleb will really like it! The cake will take most of my time to prepare, so I need to think about preparing the rest of this in advance, or pulling some major help from my family!

Defense against the Dark Arts:  Dimentor Pinata!!!  The one thing that will actually take longer then the cake, but I can make this weeks in advance.  YES, I’m making a pinata!  It’s pretty easy to do actually… I just need to design it and get it done! 

Quidditch Practice & Flying Lessons:  I’ve had a few ideas on this, but non that are too great.  One being that we could have a sort of relay race, with two teams and two brooms where they put the broom between their legs and ‘fly’ to a hoola hoop.  Go through and then find the GOLDEN snitch in the ball pit (I will have several in there) and then ‘fly’ back.  We could also play ‘Pass the Snitch’ which would sort of be like playing Hot Potato. 

Divination: A glimpse into the future, presents revealed.

Ok… So I’m super excited about this party!  I think I might have more fun with it then the kids!  Ha!  I’m crazy…

I am totally wiped out!  We had a busy day yesterday and I am ready for a nap.  It’s 4:30 now and I doubt I will make it the whole night.  I still have to cook dinner and go to Walmart.  Yesterday… we went to the playground with Heidi, DJ and their two kids Little DJ and Desiree.  It was an awesome park and the kids had a blast!  We’ll have to keep that park in mind… it had all sorts of neat things!  Jayden, Caleb and DJ played while the two babies were fighting over french fries and chicken nuggets!  :)  I don’t know how long we were there, but the kids were asking to go home after we were done. 

On the way home we stopped by the borders in Sterling.  I just wanted to see what kinds of events they were having for the Book release party.  We were planning on going to the Hallow Ball Party at the Borders in Springfield with Tereasa and Jason, but I was struggleing on deciding if I should take the kids.  I tought Caleb could probably handle it ad Alec would fall asleep… Just wasn’t sure about Jadyden.  Well… I decided to take them and I think I should have probably not!  LOL!  It wasn’t so bad.  Marcus came too and he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of waiting for my book.  I had number 409, so when they started lining up at midnight, that’s how many people were in front of us.  The kids both got face paintings, but not ont heir face… LOL!  Jayden got hedwig and Caleb got a cat on the back of their hand.  The rest of the activites were not age appropriate, so we tucked into a corner and they were casting spells at each other, which some people thought were cute… Some kid came over that was considerably older and started telling us that they were doing it wrong!  Umm… Ok, thanks, they are 3!!!!  The fact that they do it at all is impressive to me! 

The countdown at midnight sounded like new years in time square. By then, the place was so packed and the line to the bathroom was to the back of the store.  The kids fell asleep shortly after that on the floor… I got my book arounf 1:45 and then we packed up the van and headed to a McDonalds, where we waited in line long enough for Marcus to read the first chapter and for me to read at least half of it.  We got to the window and asked for 2 cheeseburgers and she said they were out.  (This is a 24 hour mcdonalds…)  Marcus was pretty upset.  He got a big mac and some fries and I just got the fries…  They were really hot, but stale.  Almost like they dipped the old fries into the hot greese to make them seem fresh.  Blah!  We drove home and I carried everyone to bed.  I think I fell asleep around 3:30. 

Good news was that Caleb slept in till almsot 10:00!  Jayden would have slept longer, but Caleb woke her up.  We got breakfast and got dressed… (with swim suits under clothes)  Headed to my moms to pick up a check for their part in vacation money and to pick up Gizmo. ~ He’s a cat that my mom helped find a home for… After 3 months they decided they didn’t want him.  He was beating up on the cat that they already had… Anyways, while we were there, I ran back to my car for something…  I was walking back and I felt a BIRD swipe the back of my NECK!!!  EWWWW!!!!!!  Gave me goosebumps!  I ran for it back to the house!  Every year a bird makes her nest in the buch right next to my moms door and attacks people as they go in and out.  When we were leaving, I opened the door and looked out… mama bird was gone and the two baby birds were pirched on some branches close to the nest… I looked from the door and then dashed to my car!  Ha ha!

So…  We are home now… Gonna fill up the pool and then throw some burgers on the grill…  Let the kids run around outside so that maybe I can lay them down early tonight!  Please please please…  Ha ha!